Christian Faith WitnessPage 43

A Military Club

The church is a lot like a Military Club. It's members share a common experience, or do they? The tale of Sir Horace may sound fanciful, but in the church it is not too far from the truth. Every Christian must make a witness to the Christian faith, it is not enough to just belong to it. You can have all the best intentions in the world, but unless you actually speak to someone about faith in God, you are failing in your calling. You can discuss it with your Christian friends until you are blue in the face, but unless you share the Christian faith with others you are not being true to yourself. Jesus said in Matthew 4.19, "Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people." Few Christians seem to take these words seriously. If the individual soldier never trained and grew fat from overindulgence, then the army would be no real threat to anyone. It would become impotent because its members were ineffective.✞

A Great Army

Similarly, the national church depends upon the effectiveness of the local church, and this rests upon the success of the individual Christian. A great army may boast three hundred thousand soldiers on paper, but if its individual soldiers are flabby, weak, undisciplined and untrained, can it still be considered a formidable opponent? All of us are obliged to witness to our faith, and it is in sharing our faith that we possess it. Saint Paul pointed to this truth when he wrote in Romans 10.9,10, "If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God." Notice here the emphasis on publicly sharing that Jesus is Lord even to a friend or family member as a prerequisite of salvation!✞